Recovery
by A Strange Audacity
Summary: Sometimes, all you need to get over a break-up is a good bit of crying. Sometimes, it's a tub of Cherry Garcia. Hanna's going to need both of those and some revenge on a bitch named A before she can heal from her split with Caleb.
1. Recovering

Hanna Marin slammed her fist down on the Snooze button on her alarm clock and buried her face back into her pillow. There was no _way _that she was getting up.

Sure, it was a Friday morning, and Fridays were generally awesome – the lax teachers of Rosewood High didn't really care what the kids did, so the last day of the week was time for Hanna to hang out with her friends, shop online for new Prada pumps, and, most importantly, sneak off into empty classrooms with Caleb for steamy make-out sessions on the desks (or against the door… or the whiteboard… or under a teacher's desk – they were trying to kiss in as many places as they could to set some sort of a record).

But things were different now.

Because if she wasn't enough of an emotional wreck from her breakup already, going to school risked a chance of seeing Caleb. And that simply could not be allowed to happen.

Hanna was definitely doing better since he broke up with her on Tuesday night – she actually pulled herself out of bed at least once a day to shower and do her makeup, though she promptly burrowed under the covers again to sob, and thus ruin the mascara she had worked so painstakingly to perfect.

Emotionally, Hanna didn't know if she would ever be the same. Yes, it was a break-up, but it killed her to know that she could have done something about it, but chickened out.

Maybe she wasn't judging herself fairly – after all, her tormentor, known only as 'A,' ran Caleb's mother off of the road and nearly killed her.

A was a _bitch._

Hanna knew that she wasn't in it alone. All three of her best friends had all suffered heartbreak at the hands of A, and she could only wonder if they felt the same way she did. Empty, bleak, like there was no happy future in sight.

And her friends _had _been there for her. Spencer and Emily dropped by daily with all her school assignments, and Aria called to check up, though Hanna hadn't actually seen her since Tuesday night. She knew that Aria felt guilty for encouraging her to tell Caleb about A, but Hanna didn't blame her – it had seemed like the only way out at the time.

Just after she had dozed back off, her alarm blared again. She _knew _that she should pull herself together and get to school, as to not fall grievously behind, but she couldn't find the strength to. So she stumbled out of bed and pulled the plug to her alarm clock out of the outlet and crashed back under her duvet.

It was just easier this way.

Oh, sure, there would probably be rumors flying around school (probably starting by Riley Wolfe and Naomi Ziegler, two skanks who had always tried to ruin Hanna and Mona) now that the queen bee had been missing for three days straight.

But Hanna didn't have the energy to care any more.

"Hanna?" Her mother, Ashley, tapped on her bedroom door softly. "Morning, sweetie."

In response, the blonde beauty just groaned loudly into her pillow.

"I made you some breakfast," Ashley said enticingly. "Pancakes with chocolate chips, your favorite."

Hanna was touched that her mother actually had the time to cook breakfast for her – usually, Mrs. Marin was too busy in the mornings to bother with such little things. Of course, Hanna hadn't _actually _eaten breakfast, much less loads of carbs like pancakes, in years, but that was beside the point.

"But you have to come downstairs for them." Her mother's tone got a stern edge to it. "No more of this eating from a tray thing, okay?"

Hanna just grabbed her sham pillow and pressed it over her ears to silence the noise. Ashley's gesture was lovely, but nothing could alleviate her depression.

•••

That day, she didn't even change out of her pajamas or run a brush through her mussed locks – what was the point? It wasn't like she had a boyfriend to impress anymore. Instead of caring about her appearance, she just glued herself to the television in her room and watched reruns that ranged from _I Love Lucy _to _The Big Bang Theory _and _Gossip Girl. _While flipping through channels, she stopped briefly at ABC Family to see an actress who looked remarkably like herself, staring worriedly at her phone.

Hanna just snorted quietly. Like that girl would have any idea what kind of anguish she was going through.

Around four o'clock, she heard the front door creak open and then close again. For a moment, she was worried that A had come to finish her for good, but then she realized – _What would the point be in that? _A had ruined her enough already; she was as good as dead. It was probably just Spencer, or Emily, or both, come with a pile of calculus, composition, and caring, though somewhat cheesy, smiles and sympathy.

Light footsteps raced up the stairs, and Hanna just slumped down in her bed, not really feeling like social hour. Much to her surprise, when the door opened, it revealed the diminutive figure of Aria Montgomery. "Hi," Aria said, glancing down at her feet like she wasn't sure that she should be here.

"H-hey," Hanna responded, feeling a rush of gratitude to see the familiar face. The other two girls were great, but she always felt like she connected with Aria more.

"So, I, um, brought your work," the petite brunette mumbled into her snakeskin bag, which she produced a pile of papers from.

"Thanks."

There was a little pause, and then Aria asked, her eyes full of concern, "So how are you doing?"

Hanna looked down at her Paul Frank T-shirt and the carton of Ben & Jerry's that sat, rapidly melting, in her lap, then looked back up at her best friend. But then the strangest thing happened – she started _laughing. _

Aria looked slightly frightened. She wasn't sure if Han's laughter meant that she was happy (why?) or either going insane (the more likely option).

"I'm a mess, aren't I?" Hanna asked ruefully. Somehow, seeing Aria brought back a flood of emotions – some happy, some miserable, but all satisfying in a way. She realized that she couldn't disappear into a shell of a person – she had to find a path out of her despondent rut.

The other girl looked absolutely stunned, and then started to giggle a little, too. "A little bit," she agreed, a smile tugging at her small, pink mouth. "So you're not mad at me?" she asked hesitantly.

Hanna shrugged nonchalantly, but the smile had been wiped off of her face. "You just encouraged me to do what I already wanted to." She took a keen interest in her fingernails, trying to focus on anything but crying.

Aria wrapped an arm around her and tried to put together the right words to say, but nothing good came to mind, so they just sat there for a minute.

"Have you… seen him at all?" Hanna asked quietly. Aria didn't have to even ask who 'he' was.

"Yesterday, in the hallway. He looked like he was about to say something, but then he just walked away."

Hanna let out a long, slow exhale, but Aria's phone interrupted her contemplative silence. The urgent little beeps came in quick succession.

"It's… um, it's my mom," Aria said, a little too quickly. "I have to go – um, I'll see you soon, right?"

Hanna just nodded. She knew when her best friend was lying, and this was an instance – she knew that the text had been from Ezra, but Aria was just afraid that Hanna was too fragile to hear that.

•••

The next morning, Hanna was awoken not by the blaring alarm, but by three girls armed with foundation, lip gloss, hairbrushes, and lots of concealer. "What the hell?" she muttered, barely awake.

"You, my friend, are in _desperate _need of a makeover," Spencer informed her bluntly.

"And we're here to do it," Emily added.

"No!" Hanna tried to shut her eyes and tune them out, but Aria threw open the curtains, making it nearly impossible to be unaware of her surroundings. "Fine," the bed-ridden beauty grumbled.

So her three best friends started attacking her with a variety of beauty products – while Emily was gathering the blonde locks and lathering them with coconut oil, Aria was applying an exfoliating face mask and Spencer was giving Hanna the most precise manicure _ever – _all of the strokes had to be _perfectly _even.

Hanna knew that this was a group effort to cheer her up, and it actually did take her mind off of Caleb – that was, until the girls left and she starting crying, thinking about how Caleb would snort derisively if he saw all of the beauty products that she had applied.

Here she was, looking positively _gorgeous _on a Saturday afternoon, aside from a few stray tears, and she had absolutely nowhere to go. All of the girls had plans – Aria was spending time with her mom, Spencer was volunteering at the local soup kitchen, and Emily was meeting up with Maya's cousin for some ambiguous reason or another.

Normally, she would have spent this time hanging out with Caleb, or – she cringed to think of the name – _Mona. _Mona had been the perfect friend, always ready to hang out when Hanna wanted. Of course, that had all been a beautiful, deceiving illusion…

Come to think of it, Hanna had heard from Wren a few days earlier – she hadn't picked up the phone at the time, seeing as she was bawling her eyes out, but he had left a message – and he had said that Mona was allowed visitors. He wasn't sure why, but felt like informing her anyway.

_Don't go to Radley, _Hanna kept chanting to herself. It would only cause a hell of a lot more pain. But she was dressed and up already, so she decided to be a masochist and visit her old BFF.

•••

"Hi!" Mona's eyes were wide with excitement as she squealed her greeting. "How _are _you? It's been soo long since I've seen you! Here, they think that just because you flip a table in a guy's face means that you shouldn't get visitors." She rolled her eyes.

"Right," Hanna stammered. It was still laborious to keep up a conversation with Chatty Mona, the new personality that had recently emerged.

"No, seriously." Mona leaned forward. "I mean, how are you dealing with the breakup and everything?"

Hanna's eyes widened. "How did you know about that?" she hissed.

Mona just smiled warmly, but her lips didn't part.

"Who's visiting you?"

"I have friends."

"What are their names?"

Mona pouted. "Oh, now, it wouldn't be any fun if I told you, know would it?"

Hanna just shook her head and stormed out of the day room.

•••

Sunday, she managed to stay out of bed.

Monday morning, Hanna was filled with a new fire – she wanted to know what bitch was ruining her life and she wanted to know it _now. _So despite all of her overwhelming urges not to, she plugged her alarm clock back in and didn't slam her hand down on the Snooze button.

When Hanna Marin made a grand appearance, she did it well – so, dressed in a raspberry-colored gauzy blouse and skinny white capris, she strode into the hallways of Rosewood High with her head tilted up and a smile on her face that clearly said, _Yes, yes, I know you all adore me!_

She strutted over to wear Spencer, Aria, and Emily were congregated and greeted them with a smile. "Hey, guys!"

They all murmured their hellos, each not wanting to broach the topic of the break-up, for fear that it might rattle Hanna's emotions too much. So, for the moment, they all pretended that it was fine – and, gradually, it evolved into something that was.

Naturally, Hanna was still raw from the breakup, and she still hurt from it – a _lot. _But it became easier and easier to deal with, so she coped.

A few days later, around the time Hanna acclimated to being back in school, she practically ran into Caleb in the hallway – she was updating her Facebook status on her phone, because social networking in Rosewood is a serious business, and he was turning a corner, so they smacked into each other head-on.

Both of their eyes widened, and, temporarily, both were rendered a little speechless. Caleb gave her a little smile and a "Sorry," and she, in return, was too flustered to say anything.

The rest of the day, she was giddy, and that handsome smile kept popping into her head.

A or no, she was winning that boy back.


	2. The Statistics of Friendship

**A/N: Thank you all for the kind words! This is my first time writing a Haleb fic, but after their horrendous breakup, I knew that I just had to. To be honest, I don't have a total plot devised for the story, so I'm planning it out as I go, and I hope that you guys enjoy it. **

**This chapter takes inspiration from the spoiler that Spencer and Caleb are going to have a budding friendship, and I felt like exploring that. **

Hanna's first week at Rosewood High passed by in a quick blur – there were make-up tests and catching up on assignments to keep her distracted, and, apart from her collision with Caleb, she managed to not think (or fantasize about) him too much.

Spencer wasn't surprised at her friend's ability to pull herself together so well; under the veneer of hairspray, skinny jeans, and feather earrings, Hanna was a surprisingly resilient girl. It was only logical: in the space of two years, Hanna's _first _best friend had died; then the whole A fiasco happened, only to turn out that it was actually her _second _best friend who had been torturing them; and now she was boyfriend-less.

It was a lot for one seventeen-year-old to handle.

Spence was just happy that Hanna wasn't such a wreck anymore – it hurt her to see her best friend lying in bed like she had nothing to get up for. She knew how much Caleb meant to the blonde, and Spencer could only compare Hanna's recent breakup to her own one with Toby last year – Spencer had felt powerless, defeated, completely and utterly demoralized.

But she didn't have much time to dwell on her best friend's breakup – it was bright and early at seven o'clock Monday morning, and her AP Statistics teacher, Mr. Kemp, was yelling at his students about a new assigned seating chart. He placed it on a stool in the middle of the front of the classroom, and Spencer was disappointed to see that she was in the very back row.

She slipped into her new desk and unloaded textbooks, binders, and pencils from her messenger bag, organizing them precisely the way she did for every other class - she liked things one way, and one way only. Order was good.

Her Sidekick rang in its familiar text tone, and Spencer felt an all-too-familiar feeling of absolute dread in her stomach, which was just one of the many side effects of having a psycho stalker buzzing at every moment.

Thankfully, though, the text was actually from the love of Spencer's life – also known as Toby Cavanaugh, the muscular, clever, sweet Adonis who had a tendency to send lots of messages, alleviating Spencer's mind from her mundane troubles.

_Morning, _this one read. Toby usually booked jobs in the afternoons, so he liked to sleep late – or at least later than his über-anal girlfriend. Spencer smiled as she imagined the way his eyes were always a little half-open when he woke up, and how his hair was mussed, but not in an unflattering way.

Also how he didn't sleep with a shirt on.

_Lucky you, _she replied, and rolled her eyes before typing, _I got up at five this morning for an early student council meeting. _

Her phone buzzed almost instantly. Mr. Kemp shot Spencer a fierce glare, and, realizing that she hadn't thought of it earlier, turned it on vibrate. _You're a glutton for extracurricular punishment._

She had to bite her bottom lip to keep from smiling widely. _Preppy is a lifestyle, you know, _she sent.

The Rosewood High bell rang, and Spencer glanced at the seat to her right – empty_. _She wondered what unlucky bastard was late that day, and what kind of extreme punishment would be handed down to them.

A new text alert popped up on her screen, and she tried to keep up with both her messages and the lesson, which Mr. Kemp was explaining in rapidfire lingo. _I've known ever since I met you, _Toby informed her.

Then, Kemp's voice broke out into a hard yell. "What do you think the bell's for, huh? Do you think that it's some sort of _guideline _about when you're going to get here? No! You get here _before _that bell rings. Sentence writing, today, right here!"

After typing a quick _I might have to go… the Kemp's on a rampage of discipline, _Spencer glanced up to see which student was slinking to the seat next to her – undoubtedly the perpetrator of the tardiness.

To her unpleasant surprise, it was none other than Caleb Rivers.

Sure, Spencer knew that Caleb was in a few of her classes – namely, of the high-level math and science variety – but she figured that she could avoid Hanna's ex-boyfriend easily.

He plopped down in his desk, and noticed Spencer looking at him, returning her hard gaze. She glanced quickly down back at her notes, trying to ease the uncomfortable feeling in her stomach by immersing herself in bivariate data.

"Turn to someone near you and discuss last night's homework assignment before you turn it in," Mr. Kemp barked. "Now! And whisper! I don't want children yelling before eight in the morning." He took a slurp out of his trademark coffee mug and then proceeded to log onto his email.

Spencer glanced desperately around herself. Both the people in front and to the right of her had already started conferring with someone else, and, being seated in the back row, there was no one she could turn around to.

The only option was Caleb.

The two of them faced each other and starting comparing their answers.

"Whispers, people!" Kemp reminded his students, looking at them irritably from over the top of his laptop.

Spencer's phone buzzed again, and this time she could see that it was from someone fully different than her carpenter beau. _Ugh, bio is soooooo boring! Can we PLEASE skip next period for a coffee run?_

"Something important?" Caleb asked. His face was hard to decipher – there was something playful in his eyes, but the rest of his face remained completely emotionless.

"No, it's just-" Spencer didn't even pause to think about the next word, "Hanna." Immediately after she said her friend's name, she flinched, realizing that she'd made a mistake.

Caleb obviously noticed this. "It's okay. Her name isn't a swear word or anything."

"Yours is around her," she remarked, amused. Then, once again, she recognized her slip-up.

"That bad, huh?"

"I _really _shouldn't say anything more."

"Fine, but I _do _have a question." He leaned forward in his seat a little. "Do you know what she's hiding from me?"

Spencer sucked in a long breath, then exhaled slowly, trying to think of an appropriate answer. "Us girls tell each other everything."

"So you _do _know." His eyes narrowed at her.

"What I _know _is that she had an excellent reason for not telling you."

The bell rang to signal the end of first period, and Spencer packed up her books quickly and sped out of the room, escaping the tense conversation.

This was a hard breakup for _everyone _to deal with.

**A/N: So how did I do? Please review and tell me!**


	3. Caleb's Secret

**A/N: Thank you again for the wonderful reviews; they inspire me so much. A big request was for more Haleb interaction (and I was dying to write it, anyway), so this chapter (or at least the second half of it) really delivers, I think. **

Hanna strutted into Rosewood High one period late (she needed extra beauty rest after staying up for the special showing of _The Notebook _the night before), latte in hand, sneering derisively at where Sean Ackard and other members of Real Love Waits club were setting up a stand to hand out flyers on the importance of abstinence.

She couldn't _believe _that she had ever dated a loser like that. Really, she couldn't believe that she had ever dated anyone except for Caleb.

The bell that signaled the end of first period rang, and Hanna hurried over to her locker – it had been a few weeks since she had returned to school, and the rush of crowds into the hallway was familiar again.

Sure enough, students began pouring out of classes. Naomi Ziegler and Riley Wolfe, two wannabe populars, giggled, their heads put together, about the latest edition of _People,_ which Riley's large, mannish hands were holding reverently.

Ms. Montgomery and Mrs. Welsh stepped out of their respective English classrooms to greet students, and the former's daughter, Aria, raced down the stairs from the art studio, her hands and arms still coated in clay from her morning ceramics class, nearly bumping into Emily, whose hair was still wet from swim practice.

Hanna smiled and waved to her friends, beginning to walk over to the two, before her view was obstructed by an unexpected sight – Spencer and Caleb were coming out of the math department together, their shoulders practically _touching, _and laughing about something.

Without thinking much about she was going to say, Hanna strolled over to the two and attempted to smile at Caleb (though the smile actually looked much more like a grimace), and then yanked Spencer's wrist. "Can I talk to you for a minute?" she asked her friend.

Spencer shrugged, said good-bye to Caleb, and went along with Hanna. "So what's up?" she asked, opening her locker and pulling out a stack of books."

"Why were you talking to him?" Hanna hissed, her voice low, as if someone might be trying to eavesdrop on their conversation.

The taller girl frowned and shut her locker door. "We sit next to each other in statistics; we talk sometimes."

"Sometimes?" The blonde's eyes narrowed into slits. "It looked like you two were pretty chummy."

Spencer sighed as the two started to walk to their next classes. "It's not a big deal, Han. And believe me, I'm not being friends with him to hurt you."

"I believe you," Hanna admitted begrudgingly. Spencer sounded truthful enough, and it wasn't like she'd have any romantic interest in Caleb – she had what was basically the perfect relationship, after all.

So did Hanna, until recently.

The two girls parted ways for second period, which was when Hanna had to get sweaty for P.E. Physical exertion was _sooo _overrated.

•••

After school that day, Hanna was exhausted from a long class load of French, calculus, composition, history, and (thank God!) study hall. It was Friday afternoon, and she had already scheduled a pedicure and massage in anticipation of the need for de-stressing after the week.

As she started to walk to her new car (a senior year present from her father, who tried to make up for his absentee parenting style with expensive gifts), she noticed two shadowy figures, which were partially concealed by the large oak trees on campus.

It wasn't hard for her to make out the first figure – his dark shaggy hair and chiseled features always stood out to her – but the other one was a kid she didn't know, who was snatching a phone back from Caleb.

Hanna's eyes focused on her ex, who separated from his latest client and stuffed a handful of cash into his worn-out backpack. His hazel brown eyes focused on her blue ones, and he approached her. "Is there a reason that you're staring?" he asked, as casually as if they had absolutely no history whatsoever.

"I just thought that you were going legit for senior year," she replied coolly, trying to mask her excitement at the fact that he was actually talking to her.

He looked slightly affronted. "I _am _legit."

"So why are your meetings so secret?" She smirked, knowing that she had out-parried him.

Caleb pursed his lips until they almost formed a scowl. "I earn a little more money this way, so what?"

"And what's the sudden need of money for?" Hanna leaned against a nearby tree, making it clear that she wasn't going anywhere.

"I'm saving up money – to get my own place."

"But I thought that you already had one?" That was true – since Caleb was old enough to live on his own without Social Services checking in on him, he had emancipated himself from the foster care system and bought his own tiny (though charming) apartment.

"Yeah, here." An uncomfortable look crossed his face, like he didn't want to discuss the subject anymore, but Hanna wanted more information.

"Here? What's _that _supposed to mean?"

"I'm moving to Montecito." His face was steeled, like he had resigned himself to the fact.

"To… to _California?" _She was stunned. Sure, they were broken up, but that didn't mean she didn't love seeing him, catching fleeting glances of him in the school hallways, appreciating how his hair was always pleasantly tangled. Life without him, while certainly more uncomplicated, would be significantly less pleasant.

"That's where Montecito is." His tone was hard.

"So," she struggled to figure out what to say next. "Um, when did you… when did you come up with this plan?"

He shrugged. "A couple months ago, I guess. But now that my mom's in physical therapy, she needs more help around the house."

Her evenly plucked brows creased in confusion. "A couple months ago?"

Caleb replied before he realized that she had trapped him conversationally. "Yeah, early this summer, I started thinking about it." Then, seeing Hanna's smug look, he finished with a somewhat embarrassed, "Oh."

"Ha!" she cried in triumph. "And you attacked _me _for keeping a secret?" Anger began to boil up inside her. "How could you not have told me?"

"It wasn't a big deal at the time."

"Yeah. So you could just keep it from your girlfriend? Why would you _do _that?"

He didn't have to search for an answer. "Because I knew that you would react like this – probably worse at the time."

Hanna just glared at him, furious and miserable at the same time. "So I kept a secret that could mean life or death, and you made me feel _terrible _about it, but all this time, you've been keeping that from me, because you thought that I might get a little annoyed?" She shook her head in disgust. "You're a jerk, Caleb! You really are a jerk."

This was what she'd been waiting for – a chance to blow up at him without any regrets, to get every little maddening feeling out on the table without worrying how she looked. She just never expected that it would happen this way, with news that he would be moving across the country.

He glanced down at his favorite sneakers, which he had used so much that they were practically falling apart. "Can we talk about this… somewhere else?"

She desperately wanted to say yes, but knew that she couldn't hold it together if she spent any more time with him. "My, um, my friends are waiting for me."

"Really?" He looked almost amused as he searched the Rosewood High campus, his gaze landing on three people – Spencer, whose arms were wrapped around Toby as they kissed, leaning against his truck; Aria, who was started on the two-block walk to Ezra's apartment building; and Emily, who was climbing with Paige into her car so that they could go see the Katy Perry movie.

She frowned, obviously caught. "Fine, you can come over to my house. My mom's working late tonight anyway." With that, she began the short trek to her car, glancing back at Caleb to make sure that he was following.

The next few moments, they fell into a familiar routine: each of them stuffed their bags in the backseat, their eyes meeting briefly as they did so. Hanna climbed into the driver's seat and stuck her keys in the ignition, tapping her hands on the steering wheel as if that would make the time go by faster.

As she started to back out of her parking space, her tire ran over a large rock, jolting the car – and Caleb's arm went instinctively over the back over her seat. _It's just a guy thing, _she told herself. _He's just being nice._

But as she turned to him to tell him that she was fine, that she didn't _need _his protection, something passed between them, some sort of reflex from when they were a couple. Their eyes locked, and, before either could react to what was happening, her arms were wrapped around his neck and they were kissing just as passionately as ever.

And neither felt like stopping.

**A/N: Believe it or not, all is not happy and well in the Land of Haleb – in fact, there might just be more drama and strife coming up. Fun, right? **

**Anyway, please leave a review containing all of your thoughts, expectations, criticisms, compliments… whatever you have to say!**


	4. Irresistible

Not ten minutes after their initial kiss, both Hanna and Caleb struggled to button their shirts back up and wiggle into the rest of their clothes while attempting to sit up straight in their seats.

Hanna was grinning broadly, though she tried to mask her smile, not wanting to seem _too _happy about rekindling the flame with her ex (or is that _former _ex?), but she absolutely was. She had been longing to kiss him again, for their lips to meet just one more time – but this had been so much more.

Caleb, on the other hand, looked ashamed. "We shouldn't have done that," he muttered.

"What do you mean?" Hanna pulled out a notebook and scribbled: _Front seat _in it. "We just added another place to our list!"

He let out a low growl. "This isn't about some _list! _Don't you get it?"

She looked perplexed. "But we're always trying to add new places to the list."

"Hanna!" he exclaimed. "This is _not _a good thing!"

"Really? 'Cause you seemed to think it was a good thing a couple minutes ago." She raised a playful eyebrow as to say, _You know that I'm right._

"This is never going to work out," he pointed out as she started to back further out of the parking space.

"Why not?" She applied a coat of lipstick while glancing in her mirror.

"Because you're _still _hiding something from me."

Her heart sank. A was ruining things yet again. "That's not something you need to be worried about. And, besides, how are you one to talk? Were you just going to up and leave for Montecito one day? Or," her tone got scathing, "were you going to write me a _letter _again?"

The reference to their first break-up didn't go unnoticed, and Caleb's expression turned from annoyed to hurt, and he kept his voice hard as he replied: "That was a long time ago."

"Yeah, but that doesn't change the fact that it happened. You're criticizing me for keeping something from you, but for months_, _you were spying on me, and for _Jenna, _of all people!"

"That's it," he growled, swung the passenger's side door open, and jumped out of the car. This elicited many stares from around the parking lot; it _was _a moving car that he had leapt out of, and the students of Rosewood High never dared to do something as audacious as that regularly.

Then again, Caleb Rivers had never really conformed to the school's standards.

And, yet again, Hanna had been left by herself, feeling utterly miserable and alone.

•••

"He is such a _jerk," _Hanna seethed the next morning, pacing around Spencer's bedroom, where all four girls were gathered. She hadn't told her friends about the hook-up in her car yesterday, as she didn't want them to think that she had absolutely _no _self-esteem whatsoever. All they knew was that Caleb had gotten into a huge fight with Hanna, and that the latter was still furious about it. "Moving to _Montecito! _What is _wrong _with him?"

"Are you sure that he didn't mention it at all?" Emily asked her. In the girls' experience, sometimes they could be having a serious conversation, but Hanna would completely zone out and have no idea what they were discussing. It happened all too often.

"He basically admitted that himself!"

Spencer frowned. "Why would he do that? It just doesn't seem like him."

"He was, like, trying to avoid a fight or something," Hanna snorted. "And, you know what, Spencer? Do not _tell _me what seems like Caleb; I know him _way _better than you do."

Spencer pursed her lips and went back to reading her statistics textbook, while Aria started braiding Emily's long, thick hair. The message was clear: no one cared that much about Hanna's fight.

•••

That weekend, Hanna stayed in and decided that she would focus on her academics, since college applications were coming up and her mother had persuaded her that she needed to raise her GPA.

Studying wasn't as easy as Hanna expected, though: all that she _really _wanted to study was Caleb's face. Ever since their encounter on Friday afternoon, it had taken all of her strength to try to ward off the image of his precisely sculpted features from her imagination. Every few minutes, she would check her phone to see if he had texted. But there was nothing. She didn't send him any texts, either, for fear of sounding desperate or clingy.

Which she wasn't. At least, she tried not to be.

Saturday night, her mother brought home a date, so Han escaped to the library so she could fit some actual work in without any distractions. She was rifling through a shelf of books on sixteenth-century Europe (who _knew _there could be so many volumes on such a familiar topic) when she glimpsed an uncomfortable sight.

Caleb sat at a table thirty feet away, going through a stack of assignments. Hanna ducked behind the shelves quickly, terrified at the prospect of being spotted. At the same time, her phone went off, and she got glares and "shhhhhhh!"s from all around the library.

Pulling it out and reading the message, her eyes flicked over the words: _Poor little Hannakins, all alone. Hope medieval history is as interesting as having people to hang out with! –A_

She glared at her phone. "It's _Renaissance _history, she whispered to it angrily. "And a little Reformation, too." This just elicited more dirty looks from the library patrons.

She searched for an empty place to dump all of her books, but Rosewood had a tiny library, and date-less students had a tendency to flock there on weekends, making it overly full with visitors. In fact, the only place she could sit down was… across from _him. _

She plopped down her stack on the table and sat down, hoping beyond hope that he wouldn't notice her, but immediately as she took the chair, his eyes landed on her. She opened her phone and started to play Tetris, hoping that it looked like she was texting someone and she actually had a social life.

Hanna wasn't sure if she should say anything to him or not – what _would _she say? "Hey, remember that time we had sex in my car and then I called you out for spying on me last year and then you jumped out of said car? …Oh, wait, that was yesterday."

So instead, she just opened her calculus book and started reading up on the Maclaurin series – or at least creating the illusion of reading.

"That book is upside down," Caleb pointed out dryly.

She tried to make her voice sound like a scoff, but really, she was just embarrassed. "I knew _that."_

"Right." His voice was skeptical. "Which is why you've been holding it like that for two minutes.

"It, um, kind of helps my brain focus to… to turn the book." It was a pathetic excuse, and Hanna knew it.

He even laughed a little. "Sure."

She slumped down in her seat. "You wouldn't know any books on the-" she glanced at her composition course syllabus, "-effective use of rhetoric, would you?"

She expected him to say no, and then she would sneer, and they would go back to reading in tense silence. But instead, he just raised an eyebrow. "Weren't you paying attention when Mrs. Montgomery was talking about that?"

She shrugged. "Probably not, no."

Caleb shook his head and laughed in disbelief. "Here, I'll show you." He stood up and glanced over his shoulder, as if saying _Follow me. _Hanna had no choice but to give in to his gaze and immediately stood up and trailed him. He reached up to a shelf that she couldn't, and handed her a large volume on high school and college composition. "Here."

"Thanks." As she took the book from him, their hands met briefly, and neither pulled away. Hanna looked up sharply at him, only to discover that his eyes were on her, too. He brushed a strand of curly blonde hair off of her face, leaned down, and touched his lips to hers. Their arms wrapped around each other, and they started kissing more passionately – until an elderly librarian came over and whacked them each on the head with a thick, dusty old novel.

"No PDA in the library!" she screeched. "Out! Out, _now!"_

So together, they were pushed outside, and both started laughing, despite the bizarre circumstances. "What is _wrong _with us?" Hanna wondered out loud. She had tried so hard, tried so hard not to fall for him again, but it was an impossible feat.

"I'd seriously like to figure it out."


	5. Benefits

**A/N: Welcome back, everyone! Sorry about the huge gap between updates; I promise I'll be a better author from now on. This chapter is a bit of a filler (so forgive me if it's kind of boring!) but it leads up to some interesting drama that'll happen in the future.**

After the incident at the library, things became fairly evident to both Hanna and Caleb: they were attracted to each other, and it was impossible to fight their mutual lust. So life fell into a simple routine – during school, they wouldn't act like they were even on speaking terms, but afterwards, Hanna would leave for her house, and, a few minutes later, Caleb would let himself in the back door. They would go up to her room, and Caleb would be gone before Mrs. Marin got home from the bank.

Their new way of hooking up seemed simple enough – they barely even talked, and the two of them had come to a strict (though unspoken) agreement that no emotions would be involved in the process.

A part of Hanna knew that what she was doing with Caleb was totally wrong and emotionally abusive… but whenever she wanted to bring it up, he took his shirt off.

And, oh God, did he look good with his shirt off.

So she didn't say anything, and they continued with their unorthodox relationship. Caleb never brought up whatever secrets Hanna might be keeping from him; Hanna didn't bring up the problems she had with his shady business dealings.

In theory, it was the perfect relationship. No talking resulted in no fighting. Unfortunately, sometimes theory doesn't transfer to reality.

One of those instances was the fact that Caleb had made it very clear that they weren't officially dating – that he didn't _want _to be in a real relationship. Which stung, but it was worse than nothing.

Right?

And, because they weren't official, the two had agreed not to tell anyone about their hook-ups, which meant that even Aria, Spencer, and Emily were in the dark as to Hanna's current romantic status.

It also made her susceptible to invited on dates, which was why visiting Radley the first weekend after she and Caleb had started regularly sleeping together was especially difficult.

Wren and Hanna were having their usual post-visit coffee, and the British doctor had tilted his head curiously. "I haven't seen that guy around here lately - you know, the one with the longish hair? Whatever happened to him?"

She immediately stiffened. "I haven't exactly seen much of him, either."

"A break-up?" Wren looked fascinated at this.

"Yeah," Hanna shrugged. What was she supposed to say? _Yeah, we broke up, but I've been shagging him every day – _that didn't exactly seem like an appropriate conversational topic.

A nervous smile crossed his face. "I know this might sound a little brash of me, but… would you like to have coffee with me? You know, somewhere that _isn't _a mental facility?"

She stiffened. A part of her kind of actually wanted to say yes – Wren was cute, and he was sweet, and it was about time that she got over Caleb. She didn't exactly _want _to get over Caleb, though. "I, um, I don't know. It's still kind of raw."

"Of course."

"But," she blurted, not thinking. "Maybe in a few weeks?"

He winked and stood up. "It's a date."

•••

Two weeks after her visit with Wren, Hanna was lying in bed next to Caleb, breathless. "Can we just make it official already?" she demanded.

"Make _what _official?" he countered.

"That we're, you know," she smiled. "Dating." She was getting kind of sick of the ruse, and she wanted Caleb desperately.

"But we're not."

"Okay, genius." Hanna rolled her eyes. "We have sex every day and then you help me with my physics homework. How is that _not _dating?"

"I thought we've been through this," he sighed. "I don't want to get involved with you unless you can tell me what's been going on in your life."

"And I can't do that."

"So no relationship." His tone was hard as he sat back up. "Why don't you just tell me?"

"It's not that easy," she replied coolly. "But if we're not dating, would that leave me to, say, go out for coffee with another guy?"

"Sure," he snorted. He didn't think that she was _serious – _if he was certain about one thing as far as Hanna was concerned, it was that she was still in love with him.

"Great," she answered, smirking. "So I guess that I'll tell Wren yes."

His eyes widened. "_What?"_

"Yeah." For once, Hanna felt like she had actually outmaneuvered someone. "He asked me out, and I was postponing, so I thought that I'd ask you."

"So does that mean no more…" He gestured between them.

"Guess not." She took in a sharp breath. This was his last chance to confess his feelings to her, the last chance for him to beg for her to take him back.

But instead, all she was greeted with was stony silence. "I'll see you Monday morning, then." He scooped up his messenger bag from the beautifully carved desk in her room. The only detail he _didn't _noticed as he exited the Marin home was that he had accidentally taken her iPhone among his things.

•••

Towards the end of the next school week, Hanna was standing by Spencer's locker. She was trying to keep her tone light, but there was no mistaking the worried look that was on her face. The one who _didn't _notice it was Spencer, and only because she was freaking out about her psych test.

"Hey," Caleb said awkwardly, approaching the two. "Hanna, can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Um, yeah." Hanna didn't meet his eyes; instead, she stared pointedly at her Christian Loubutain shoots.

Caleb looked pointedly at Spencer. "Hey, no!" she cried. "This is _my _locker. If you two need to go somewhere-" He kept glaring at her. "-oh, fine, I'll go." She scooped up her mountain of textbooks and made her way to first period.

"I need to talk to you about something," he said, his tone hard.

"Yeah, well, I think that I have something _slightly _more important to say."

"Really?"

"I kind of think so!"

At the same moment that Caleb pulled out Hanna's phone from his bag and asked, "Why didn't you tell me about A?" tears welled up in her eyes as she murmured, "I think that I'm pregnant."

"_What?" _the two asked at the same time.

**A/N: What do you think? Is Caleb going to be mad about A? Is Hanna **_**really **_**pregnant? Tell me your theories and opinions in your review!**


	6. Confessions

**A/N: After last chapter's cliffhanger, I was eager to dive into this chapter, and it's definitely a game-changer, in more ways than one. I hope that you enjoy it!**

Hanna snatched her phone from Caleb. "You _stole _this?" she asked incredulously. "What is your _problem? _I was worried sick about it!"

"Hold on." He held up a defensive hand. "You're _pregnant?"_

The warning bell rang. "Listen," she said, her tone shaky, "I can't talk right now; if I get another tardy, I have to go to detention. Meet me after school, okay?"

"Yeah, sure," he muttered, and walked off to his own class.

•••

By three fifteen that afternoon, they were sitting across from each other at the Marins' kitchen table, neither wanting to lead off the conversation. "So," Hanna started, at the same time Caleb led off with an uncomfortable, "Um…"

They both laughed uneasily, and she plunged into speaking. "I'm not sure one way or another yet, but I'm four days late and this morning I was puking my guts out."

He swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing in his throat. "That doesn't mean anything for sure, though, does it?"

"No," she agreed, "but it doesn't exactly look good either."

"I'm sorry I took your phone," he admitted, glancing down at his hands. "But I grabbed it accidentally when I was over here, and once I had it…."

"It was too hard not to look," she finished, nodding. "I get it. Once you have something like that, temptation kind of takes over."

"Why didn't you tell me?" he wondered, meeting her eyes for the first time in their exchange.

"I wanted to," she replied quietly. "But if you knew half of what was going on… look, I still don't understand it, and I don't want you to have to get involved."

"But I _am _involved," Caleb pointed out, running a finger through his tangled hair. "Now that I read that text, I am involved."

"I don't want you to be involved." Her tone was firm.

"You don't trust me?"

"It's not that." Hanna let out a long sigh. "It's just, I want you to be safe. And I know that if you get involved with me, you won't be."

"But we are involved," he insisted. "Especially if you're… you know." He had avoided saying the word so far.

Hanna raised an eyebrow. "Pregnant?"

"Yeah." He nodded slowly. "Pregnant."

A solid knock ended the temporary, and both sets of eyes snapped to the back door. On the other side, standing incredulously, were Aria, Spencer, and Emily.

"Guys," Hanna said, shocked, opening the door. "What are you doing here?"

"We were coming over to study," Emily reminded her. "Remember?"

"I guess I forgot." She glanced back to the kitchen table. "Just out of curiosity, how much of that conversation did you hear?"

Aria's arms folded. "Enough to make us seriously concerned."

"Yeah, we're kidnapping you." Spencer took Hanna's arm and started to march her up the stairs. "We'll give her back in a couple minutes," she promised Caleb.

Once they were safely in Hanna's room with the door closed, tears started to slide down Hanna's cheeks.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Aria asked gently, putting her arm around the blonde.

"Because… because… I don't know, okay?" she burst out.

"How long ago did this happen?" Emily pressed. "I mean, if you two haven't been together, for, what, over a month…?"

"We have," Hanna said, obviously unsettled.

"Wait – you guys are back together?" Aria's eyes widened. "Again, _why didn't you tell us?"_

"Because we weren't _together _together," Hanna clarified through sobs. "We were only hooking up, and I thought you guys would think I was a slut for it."

"You know that we would never see that," Emily insisted.

"I have to shut him out, though." Hanna buried her face in her hands.

"Han." Spencer's tone was soft. "Do you remember when Toby left Rosewood last year?"

The other girl nodded and swiped an idle tear from her cheek.

"I was ready to give up," Spencer admitted. "Every day, it got harder and harder. I wanted to call him; I wanted to tell him everything that was going on in my life, about A especially. It came close to killing me."

"Are you trying to make me more depressed?" Hanna moaned.

"No, of course not. The thing is," Spencer sucked in a breath, "if you have a chance to let Caleb know, to let him be a part of your life again, you need to take advantage of it. And if you two have a baby on the way, you don't want to bring that kid into a world where its parents are always lying to each other."

Hanna reached out and gave her friend a tight hug. "I need to go talk to him."

Aria nodded and squeezed Hanna's hand. "We'll wait up here, okay?"

"Thanks." With a toss of her blonde curls in front of the mirror, Hanna headed downstairs and to Caleb.

"Is everything okay?" he asked, his voice generally concerned. She loved that about him, that he always wanted to know what was going on in her life, and that he was always genuinely concerned with her.

"No," she replied, and, for the first time in a long time, felt that she was actually being truthful to him. "Ever since I met you, I've basically done nothing but lie to you. I thought that would stop this year – you know, after Mona was sent to Radley and all – but nothing's changed. You know about A now, you just don't know _why _there's an A."

A hopeful expression crossed his face. "So are you going to tell me why?"

She nodded. "And I'm not telling you this because I want to get back together with you or anything-" even though God knew she did! "-but because I owe it to you. You've never not been there for me, and now, with everything that's happening…" She cast a significant glance at her stomach. "You need to know."

So she started telling him about the night that she had spent with the girls, how Emily had gotten drunk and disappeared, and how they had been gradually trying to piece together that night, but how the puzzle was just getting more confusing and convoluted, and how this new A was out for her blood – quite literally.

When she had finished spilling every heart-wrenching confession from that year, Caleb wrapped an arm around her quietly, pulled her head to his lips, and kissed it gently. "This A," he murmured, "is going down."

**A/N: So, what did you think? Tell me in a review!**


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